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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26961436">Rumbles in the Jungle</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZimsMostLoyalServant/pseuds/ZimsMostLoyalServant'>ZimsMostLoyalServant</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Invader Zim Jungle AU [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Invader Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>African Folklore, Aged-Up Character(s), Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Jungle, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Demonic Possession, F/M, Harems, I just wrote it, Implied Sexual Content, Public Humiliation, Public Nudity, Story outline by a friend, Stupidity, minor crossover</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:41:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,432</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26961436</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZimsMostLoyalServant/pseuds/ZimsMostLoyalServant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to "Gaz the Jungle Girl's Bad Day"/"Dib the Jungle Boy's Great Day".</p><p>A drunken bet sends Dib off on a series of hijinks that will push his newfound luck to its limits. Meanwhile, Gaz's efforts to escape her own bad luck only make things worse for everyone.</p><p> </p><p>*Commissioned by a friend on Fanfiction.Net*</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dib &amp; Gaz (Invader Zim), Dib (Invader Zim)/Original Female Character(s), Dib (Invader Zim)/Other(s), Dib (Invader Zim)/Tenn, Dib/Tak (Invader Zim)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Invader Zim Jungle AU [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965145</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And here's the most recent entry in this Jungle AU that The Cowardly Christian drew up for me to write. Unlike the others, this one was actually commissioned as a multi-chapter fic, and is currently being written, so there's more to come.</p><p>Now then, a few things to get out of the way before we start. First of all, again, as with all stories based on TCC's prompt outlines, this will be wackier and overall more mature than my usual stuff, so be wary of that, and don't read if you don't like. Secondly, like with the other stories inspired by TCC's outlines, this story is based on my pre-"Enter the Florpus" view on Gaz, so like with New Adventures just imagine the show's version of her rather than the comics/movie version. Thirdly, while TCC sent me the whole outline at once, don't expect fast updates — our current understanding is that for each portion of this story I post, he'll update three of his stories on FFN, and that usually takes a couple of weeks each time, so I'll be waiting for his updates before getting to mine. And finally, expect this story's chapters to be shorter than usual for my stuff, as while I'll be padding out and combining TCC's chapter outlines when necessary, they're still shorter than I normally tend to write. Just FYI.</p><p>Anyway, all that said, read on and enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There are three unspoken things you should <em>never</em> do in all creation, no matter what universe you live in: Never look Cthulhu in the eye, never cross the streams of reality, and most importantly of all, never make a wager while drunk. Especially not in a world where all you walk around wearing on a regular basis is a loincloth.</p><p>"I LOVE YOU GIRLS SO MUCH!" a totally wasted Dib shouted happily.</p><p>Sadly, the Dib Membrane of the Jungle Earth universe had never learned those all-important rules… well, not the last one. There's actually a funny story about how he learned the first two, but that's a tale for another time.</p><p>"Chug, chug, chug!" his numerous wives chanted enthusiastically as he chugged down yet another barrel of Komodo venom wine.</p><p>Yes, it had been several months since this world's versions of the Membrane children had undergone their Anansi-induced reversal of fates. Dib had gone from the village loser to a celebrated hero with a large harem, while Gaz had gone from the most feared person in the jungle to a laughingstock that people still mockingly called "Dung Girl" for her now-infamous walk of shame.</p><p>Naturally, Gaz blamed Dib for all her misfortune and humiliation, because Heavens forbid that she bother to figure things out past "I'm hurt, so now I'll hurt Dib to make myself feel better, because I can". But to her frustration, she found that things weren't that simple anymore. Every attempt at physically harming Dib just ended in broken bones for her and not a scratch on him, and all her attempts to indirectly harm or at least humiliate him just ended up backfiring on her.</p><p>It was actually almost impressive, all the ways that things had blown up in her face. For example, the first time she'd tried to outright attack him, she'd somehow missed him and gone right out the window of their treehouse, crashing into the hut their father used as his alchemical lab and ruining his latest experiment. And while his anger at this would have been bad enough, it rather paled compared to the fact that the chemical mixtures she'd spilled had dissolved her fur bikini and set her hair on fire, causing her to run in a panic to the river to put it out and then have to streak back home, receiving mockery from the villagers along the way. Meanwhile, Dib helped his father fix his lab and in the process made suggestions that improved the ruined experiment, earning his father's respect.</p><p>Another time, Gaz had stolen a spell from one of Dib's magic books and used it to cause his loincloth to unravel while he was in the middle of the crowded marketplace. And while this had succeeded, leaving Dib somewhat embarrassed, this had happened right in front of a visiting Amazonian ambassador, who had been so impressed by his… ahem, "size", that she'd happily arranged to have her daughter join his harem, granting great prosperity and prestige to Dib, his father, and the village as a whole. And at the same time, the spell — which Gaz had pronounced improperly — had snapped back and destroyed her bikini as well, leaving her likewise naked. Worse, the first people to have seen her had been some visiting merchant women who had mistaken her for an "ugly boy" flashing them and angrily chased her around the village, pelting her with rocks.</p><p>Yet another time, she had unleashed a crocodile into the stream while Dib was bathing, having the night before snuck some crocodile bait into the loincloth she knew he'd be wearing that day, hoping that the beast would castrate him. But she'd used the wrong herbs, making Dib smell so tasty that the crocodile had decided instead of eating him to abduct him and present him as a gift to the group of Mama Wati water spirits it served. Who, as had practically become standard by this point, took one look at Dib and talked him into an orgy. Gaz, who had snuck along in hopes of watching her brother get mauled, had been enraged and tried to breakup the orgy to attack Dib, only for the spirits' crocodile servants to attack her. She just barely survived without serious injury, but lost her bikini in the process, and while trying to sneak home ran into her father; angry at her apparently streaking again, he'd once more punished her by making her march through the village in the buff.</p><p>On and on it went, Gaz's various petty schemes only ever leaving her worse off while Dib always came out smelling like roses, usually gaining new lovers in the process. And that was without counting the various other indignities she now suffered on a regular basis, as the villagers she'd once tormented now felt emboldened to take revenge on her. Almost every day, someone would throw rocks at her head, or trip her up as she walked down the street, or heckle insults at her, or even sometimes steal her clothes while she bathed. And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that seemingly every time she stepped even a foot into the jungle, something — attacking birds or beasts, getting tangled on stray branches, random fires — would cause her to lose her bikini and yet again have to streak home.</p><p>Eventually, Witchdoctor Membrane had had enough. Enough of the shame his daughter's antics brought on the family, enough of the quiet snickering by the villagers whenever he walked by, and definitely enough of having to constantly buy Gaz new clothes so frequently. And since his only other options were to disown and cast her out (which was even more disgraceful) or to force her to stay in their home all the time (which wasn't practical, not least of all because he wasn't entirely convinced that she wouldn't find a way to get into trouble even then), he ultimately chose to deal with her by having her carted off kicking and screaming to a temple convent that specialized in breaking abnormal young people and making them model villagers.</p><p>Frankly, he would have sent Dib years ago, except the convent only allowed girls in. Apparently no one cared if boys were crazy outcasts. Go figure.</p><p>Anyway, it didn't take long for everyone in the village to celebrate Gaz's absence. Which brings us back to the start of this story — Dib might, for reasons he didn't fully understand, still care about his sister, but he couldn't deny that his life was a lot easier without her around. Especially not with his wives, who all hated her, talking him into joining their celebrations and repeatedly reminding him that with Gaz out of the way he could focus on being a young man who wasn't even 20 yet but was already prosperous and had a <em>very</em> active sex life. Needless to say, Dib quickly forgot any concerns he had and joined in the fun.</p><p>So, here is where we join Dib, at the end of weeks of almost round the clock partying. He felt on top of the world, as he looked around and took in the fact that he was surrounded by hot women who adored him, most of whom had stripped at some point during the partying. The sight made him horny as hell, greatly helped by the fact that he was intoxicated out of his mind. That, along with the huge ego boost of his situation, was not a good combination… especially when he had an equally hammered succubus sorceress on hand.</p><p>Tak was laying happily sprawled on a couch nearby, naked and watching Dib with a drunkenly pleased smile. The last several months had been the best of her long existence — not only had she eliminated her greatest enemy, but she'd gained herself a nearly never-ending supply of sex and booze. More than that though, while Dib had proven himself to be a great lover, he was an even better partner and friend. Hell, she'd even revealed her true nature to him (breaking the biggest taboo of demon kind in the process), and he hadn't cared.</p><p>Admittedly, she'd deliberately waited until they were in the middle of making love to tell him this, so he was too busy thinking with his "other head" to really process it… but hey, it worked. She could now use the full extent of her sex magic without fear of him handing her over to an angry mob.</p><p>But although demons have a higher alcohol tolerance than humans, she had moved way past her limit by this point. And all the mystic knowledge at her disposal combined with a removal of inhibitions was about to prove as bad a mixture as Dib's current state.</p><p>Tak giggled as she watched Dib toss aside the empty barrel and pose triumphantly, the other girls cheering for him.</p><p>"You're number 1, baby!" she called out to him, chirping happily. Dib looked over to her, smirking smugly and gaze running lustfully over her bare form, his normal bashfulness long since burned away by the booze.</p><p>"Yeah I, hic, am!" he exclaimed arrogantly even as he struggled to stay on his feet, "Gaz doesn't be-hic-beat me up anymore, I've got a, hic, ton of hot wives, I'm hung like a, hic, mule! Everything's com-hic-coming up me! I'm invincible!"</p><p>Zita, who was nearly as drunk as Dib and Tak were, giggled happily in agreement, "Yeah, Dib, there's nothing you can't do! Do something to show how awesome you are!"</p><p>"An-anything for, hic, for my women!" Dib said a smirk, "Name it and I'll, hic, I'll, hic, do the thingy!"</p><p>Uninhibited as they all were, the girls were happy to take up the challenge. But at the same time, this left them too disoriented to think of anything to seriously challenge him with, leaving them to just spout out whatever random thoughts crossed their addled minds.</p><p>"You should go, hic, go somewhere far away and then, hic, come back!" a girl leaning dizzily against a window ledge said as she looked off into the distance.</p><p>"Go far… come back? Hic. Okay, sure!" Dib exclaimed, "But that's, hic, too easy! Someone give me some-hic-something else on top, hic, on top of that!"</p><p>A girl who was lying semiconscious on the floor next to Dib looked up at him as she regained enough coherency to recognize that he was speaking. She giggled as she realized that her angle let her look right up into his loincloth.</p><p>"Take off your loincloth," she said perversely, reaching up to give the leopard skin a playful tug. She hadn't actually been listening to the conversation and was just saying that for the fun of it, but in Dib's inebriated and horny state he wasn't about to stop to consider that before following such a request.</p><p>"Take, hic, take off clothes. Hic, got it!" Dib said eagerly, to the cheers of his wives at the thought, "I've got it, hic, now I'm gonna flaunt it! Anything else?"</p><p>A girl with bloodshot eyes was sitting in the corner, oblivious to what was happening around her as she smoked from an elephant-shaped bong that someone had provided for the party. After a few minutes of puffing from it, she paused to look at it weirdly as her trip started to go bad.</p><p>"My hands are huge," she slurred, "And so's this elephant's trunk! Someone make it smaller, it's freaking me out!"</p><p>Yet again, this comment had absolutely nothing to do with the conversation that was going on. However, in his alcohol-induced arrogance, Dib was sure she was talking about his impressive endowment. And in his current self-assurance that he could do no wrong, he saw no problem in following the suggestion.</p><p>"Make my, hic, 'trunk' smaller… sure, why not?" Dib said cockily. Turning to Tak he asked, "Hey, hic, hey sweetie! Could, hic, could you send me far away somewhere, naked and with shrunken junk?"</p><p>"Okey-dokey!" Tak giggled, likewise too inebriated to realize how stupid an idea this was, seeing only the humor in it, "But it's a little bit outside my regular powers, so we'll have to make a demon deal to pull it off."</p><p>Sitting up, she shakily chanted in her native infernal tongue, until indigo flames erupted in one of her hands, which she held out to her lover.</p><p>"Accept my aid in being teleported far away from this place, and my price will be nudity and a shrinking curse upon your genitals, neither to be relieved until such time as you return," she said solemnly, sounding almost sober as she did so.</p><p>"Deal!" Dib exclaimed happily as he shook her hand without a second thought. The mystical flames flared and shot out from Tak's hand to quickly wrap around Dib, and then with a flash of light he vanished, leaving only his loincloth to flutter to the floor.</p><p>The girls all stared curiously at the spot where their joint husband had disappeared from, and at where the harem's head wife had passed out from the strain of casting the spell. However, in their current drunken (and in a few cases, drugged out) states, none of them could focus on this long enough to really care about it. So, they just shrugged and went back to partying.</p><p>Meanwhile, on the divine plane of existence, Anansi sighed as he observed what had just happened to one half of his pet project. He supposed he should have seen this coming — as good as Dib's luck had become against outside intervention and random events, it couldn't protect him from his own poor judgement and bad decisions. Free will and all that.</p><p>After all, not even the unluckiest man in the world could get himself accidentally pregnant. Conversely, even the luckiest man in the world would never have gold just appear out of thin air in front of them… well, maybe if they somehow stumbled into the Midas dimension, but that was beside the point, which was that even the best of luck had its limits, which Dib was about to learn the hard way.</p><p>Though on the subject of how someone with luck of one extreme could still end up having the other kind, maybe he should check on Gaz…</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <em>Meanwhile</em>
  </p>
</div>The Convent of Divine Grace was one of the greatest temples in all of the jungle lands, a large wall encasing bountiful garden fields in front of a grand edifice carved into the side of a mountain, inside of which were numerous halls and rooms. Many of these were holy spaces dedicated to various gods, but others were living spaces for both the priestesses who ran the place, and the girls sent to their tender mercies. The convent was a favorite destination for influential members of the jungle society to ship off daughters who were more trouble than they were worth to.<p>This was where Gaz had been sent by her father, and needless to say she was even more miserable here than she'd been back home in the village. While there she'd become a laughingstock and had to suffer watching Dib have such a great life, at least she'd still been allowed to do whatever she wanted. Here, she actually had to do <em>chores</em> — every day she was forced awake at dawn, and then made to toil in the fields, take care of livestock, work in the kitchen, empty chamberpots, scrub floors, and all other kinds of menial labor she used to leave for other people, seeing it as beneath her. But, if she refused to obey instructions, or failed at the task given to her, or in any way broke the rules, she was strictly punished.</p><p>
  <em>SMACK</em>
</p><p>
  <em>SMACK</em>
</p><p>
  <em>SMACK</em>
</p><p>Case in point, she was currently in one of the main halls, splayed over the lab of the temple's leader Matron Bitters, who was repeatedly smacking a paddle into Gaz's bare ass. This was a favorite punishment tactic of the old crone's, which Gaz had unfortunately become very intimate with.</p><p>Currently, she was being punished for once again walking around naked. Never mind the fact that she had only been in that state because a candle had fallen off an altar and the stray embers had made her fur bikini burn off, or that this had happened right in front of Bitters' eyes, meaning she knew Gaz hadn't done it intentionally. No, it seemed she just wanted an excuse to once again spank Gaz. It was practically a running gag at this point.</p><p>"There, I think that's enough to get the point across, don't you?" Bitters said when she finally stopped the spanking after several minutes.</p><p>"Yes, Matron, thank you," Gaz reluctantly replied through grit teeth, knowing that if she didn't give the expected response, she would just earn more whacks.</p><p>"Good," Bitters said, shoving Gaz off her lap and letting the girl very stiffly get back on her feet, "Now, get back to work. This room won't clean itself."</p><p>"Can I get some replacement clothes first?" Gaz asked, trying very hard to ignore the pain radiating from her bottom.</p><p>"No," Bitters replied bluntly, "Since you seem to enjoy being naked so much, you can just go ahead and stay that way for the rest of the day."</p><p>"I don't like being naked!" Gaz snapped in protest, even though she knew it wouldn't do her any good.</p><p>"Oh really? Then why does it keep happening?" Bitters asked dryly.</p><p>And that was the real problem — even without being able to continue in her failed attempts to humiliate Dib, circumstances her at the convent still kept causing Gaz to lose her clothes. They'd burn from loose flames like in this most recent incident, or they'd get caught on roots or branches while she worked the fields and tear apart, or the animals she was tending would somehow mistake them for food and rip them off her to eat, or she'd get into a fight with one of the other girls (which happened frequently, as they had no problem bullying her) and they'd somehow get torn off… the list went on, and no matter the circumstances, Bitters would always blame Gaz for her predicament and paddle her for it.</p><p>Gaz was sick and tired of the whole situation, but she could do nothing about it but quietly clench her fists in anger. Seeing this, Bitters smirked in smug triumph.</p><p>"Glad to see we understand each other," she said, "Now, like I said, back to work. I expect this room to be spotless, and don't even think about going to the dining hall for supper until it is."</p><p>With that, Bitters swept out of the room. Gaz watched her go, spat a few curses, and then limped over to where her cleaning supplies had been left next to the main altar. Said supplies were just a bucket of water, some small bars of soap, and a single rag that could fit in her palm with room to spare; this was going to take forever.</p><p>"Fuck that crone, fuck this place, and fuck Dib!" she snarled, "This is all his fault! If he had just kept being my punching bag like he's supposed to be, none of this would have happened! I'd still be running that village, instead of being stuck in this hellhole with everyone always laughing at me! And why doesn't he get in as much trouble for being naked as often as I am? Because he's 'sexy' and I'm 'ugly'? That's a load of crap! I'm beautiful and all these bitches are just jealous!"</p><p>Completely consumed by delusional anger, Gaz picked up one of the soap bars and started squeezing it like a stress ball.</p><p>"I don't care how long it takes, but I will find a way to get out of this place," she growled, deliberately ignoring that she had no means of supporting herself even if she did escape the temple, "Then I'll make them all pay. Dib, those bimbos in his harem, dad, the villagers, the people here — everyone who ever made me miserable will all suffer!"</p><p>To punctuate her point, Gaz threw the soap. However, she wasn't looking where she was aiming, and realized too late that she'd just thrown it right at the large statue of the creator god Amma that was perched atop the altar. Gaz's eyes widened as she watched the soap hit the statue hard enough to rock it, leaving it wobbling for several moments… and then she yelled in panic and jumped out the way, barely avoiding being crushed as it fell over and hit the floor, smashing into a million pieces.</p><p>"Shit!" Gaz exclaimed as she got back to her feet, all her angry bravado suddenly forgotten, "Shit, shit, shit! When the matron sees this, she'll paddle me so hard I won't be able to sit for a month! What do I do, what do I do?"</p><p>While Gaz was panicking over her impending punishment, she failed to notice as thick black smoke emerged from the ruined statue and solidified as a small cloud. A pair of glowing green eyes appeared in that cloud and stared at Gaz intently. Then, before she could notice it, the smoke rushed back into the rubble.</p><p>"Okay, okay, maybe I can hide in the cellars until this blows over," she muttered, "No, Bitters will find me down there and then punish me worse for hiding. Probably toss me in a cage with rabid weasels or something… huh?"</p><p>Gaz trailed off as she noticed something shining through the remains of the statue. Frowning, she reached down to shift through the rubble to see what was causing it. And when she did, her eyes widened in shock.</p><p>Gold! A huge sack full of gold coins, gold bars, and pieces of gold jewelry was lying right there in front of her. Hell, there was even a gold, jewel-encrusted metal bikini that looked to be her exact size lying atop the rest of the loot. It was a miracle!</p><p>"What is this, the convent's secret stash?" she asked, before shaking off any curiosity in favor of excitement, "Who cares, never mind. Finders keepers. There's enough here to start a new life somewhere else, maybe even buy some mercenaries to send after Dib and his bimbos, and to burn this place down… nah, I'll just buy enough weapons to do it myself."</p><p>Mind now set on a plan, Gaz went into action. She quickly slipped on the metal bikini, which she was surprised to find really was perfectly sized for her, then hoisted the sack containing the rest of the gold over her shoulder and without a second thought ran towards the door, not planning to stop until the convent was far behind her. And all the while, she failed to notice the wisps of black smoke trailing from the bikini and the other gold, the lingering sign of the entity which had created these items for her, and was now able to latch onto her body and spirit through her claiming of them.</p><p>On the divine plane, Anansi somehow managed to go pale despite not actually having blood as he watched this. Too late, he realized that bad luck for a spoiled brat didn't necessarily mean good luck for everyone else. Especially not when the situation wouldn't look like bad luck to the brat in question, who would therefore just keep stumbling blindly into it.</p><p>The entity that had been trapped within that statue was none other than the chaotic trickster deity Yurugu, who had long ago been sealed by Amma as punishment for his crimes. But now that he'd tricked Gaz into taking possession of something made from his essence, he would slowly be able to merge with her on a metaphysical level, until she was just an extension of him. Which was why her cursed luck wasn't causing her to be intercepted before she could get out of the convent; that would technically be good luck, as the priestesses would realize what had happened and exorcise Yurugu from her before it was too late. So, her escaping was actually bad luck for her in the long run, and if it was also bad luck for the rest of the world too? Well, that was an unfortunate side effect.</p><p>Anansi swore angrily as he watched the newly-possessed Gaz escape from the convent and disappear into the jungle. Yurugu's power would protect Gaz from his direct interference, so he couldn't just cause her to bump into some shamans or fall into a volcano or something. He would have to be sneaky and play a long game to contain Gaz and/or separate Yurugu from her, while also simultaneously trying to contain the damage that would come of the other trickster being free in the world. It would take all of his focus and power, which meant he couldn't spend any time on trying to mitigate the situation Dib had gotten himself into.</p><p>He'd just have to hope that while he was keeping an age of chaos at bay, Dib didn't screw himself over too badly…</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And there we go, we're off to the races. Like I said, shorter than I'd normally do with my own work, but being just the start of an ongoing multi-chapter story, I guess it doesn't have to be epic length on its own.</p><p>Anyway, you should be aware going forward that this chapter is just a taste of what's to come. So again, if this sort of thing isn't your cup of tea, I respect that, and ask that you just ignore this story's existence. Please no flames.</p><p>See y'all next time, for more fun in the jungle.</p><p>Until then, please review!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dib learns what a mess he's in, but makes a new friend.</p><p>Meanwhile, Gaz's own situation gets better for her... but worse for everyone else.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to the next part of this Jungle AU story. This is where the plot and fun really pick up, including an appearance by a familiar OC of mine, so let's not waste too much time and just get right into it.</p><p>Again, this story contains a lot of mature situational humor, so if you don't like that kinda stuff, just ignore this story's existence. That said, those of you who are interested, read on!</p><p>Oh, and this chapter contains a minor crossover, featuring a character from the film "Early Man" (which I have not seen, but TCC put him in the outline, so I felt obligated to keep him). There will be a few other small crossovers throughout the story, but they're not really prominent so I don't feel the need to add this story to other fandom categories. Just FYI.</p><p>Read on!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Dib regained consciousness the next morning, he immediately wished that he hadn't, as he experienced the worst hangover of his life. His head was pounding so hard that it felt like it was going to split in half. And it certainly didn't help any that he was lying on something a lot harder than a bed or couch or even the floor of his tree house; had he ended up falling asleep outside?</p><p>"<em>Ugh, the party must have gotten out of hand. Again,</em>" Dib managed to think through the immense headache, "<em>I really need to learn to say 'no' when the girls talk me into drinking contests… whatever, I'm just going to lie down here for a while. Everyone can just walk over me for all I care-</em>"</p><p>"Get off the road, you idiot!" someone suddenly yelled. Instinctively bolting upright at the loud intrusion, Dib turned to face its source and yelped, jumping out of the way just in time to avoid being run over by a cart. The cart's driver didn't even slow it down, just throwing a few choice insults at Dib over his shoulder as he continued on his way.</p><p>Although his head was still throbbing, Dib could still think clearly enough that he quickly got off the road he'd been lying on in case anymore carts came by, and then looked around to take stock of his situation. And as he did, he realized how bad that situation was.</p><p>"Where the hell am I?" he asked aloud, seeing that he was most definitely not in his own village, nor any of the neighboring villages that he'd visited over the years. In fact, it looked nothing like any village he'd ever seen before — rather than just being dirt, the roads were lined with paved stones, and instead of wood all the buildings towering around him were made out of carved rock and metal. And even more bizarrely, he realized belatedly, that cart that had almost hit him had been moving on its own! There hadn't been any animals in front of it dragging it along, just an odd mishmash of metal tubes.</p><p>Literally the only thing Dib saw in all this that was even remotely familiar was the people he could see further down the street in either direction, already going about their business for the day. More specifically, the fact that he could see just well enough through the early morning light to make out that they were all wearing the same leopard skin loincloths and bikinis worn everywhere else. Unbeknownst to Dib, this was because the local despot had been bribed by the Leopard Trappers and Skinners Guild to enforce this standardized fashion and therefore protect their monopoly on clothing. But that has no bearing on the plot, so let's move on.</p><p>"Well, that's reassuring, I guess, knowing that some things never change. Hundreds of leopards will always die so that people can have loin… cloths…" Dib said, trailing off as he instinctively reached down to tug on his own loincloth for emphasis, only to touch bare skin instead. Eyes widening slightly in anticipatory concern, he looked down and saw to his horror that his loincloth was gone — and worse, rather than the "elephant trunk" he'd mysteriously acquired a short time ago, he saw instead the "pine needle and two sesame seeds" he'd been cursed with for so long and had hoped he'd never see again.</p><p>With his still splitting headache fogging his mind up, it took a shocked Dib longer than it should have to properly process the fact that he was in a strange place, naked and effectively emasculated. When he finally did, however, he gave a strangled yelp and quickly covered his once again teeny-weeny with his hands (humiliation only growing as it registered that even one hand was overkill for that now), before running off in a panic.</p><p>Not even caring where he was going, Dib bolted down the road, desperate to find some kind of proper cover. Thankfully it was still early, the sun just barely peeking over the horizon, so not only was there barely anyone out but it was too dark for the few who were to properly see him from a distance. But that wouldn't last for long, and unless he wanted to find out firsthand what this strange place's legal punishment for public nudity was, he needed to find clothing now.</p><p>Eyes darting frantically around him as he ran, Dib saw an alleyway coming up, and he quickly ducked into it. Looking around his new haven, he gave a massive sigh of relief as he saw a large number of loincloths hanging from clotheslines running between the two buildings. Telling himself that it wasn't really theft since he was desperate, and that the owners presumably had others so it wouldn't matter to them if one went missing, he reached towards the nearest loincloth… and to his shock, as soon as he touched it, there was a small flash of blue light and it turned to dust in his hands.</p><p>"What?" Dib blurted in disbelief. He grabbed for another loincloth, only for the same thing to happen, again and again as he quickly made his way through nearly the entire supply of clothes on display.</p><p>It wouldn't be until much later — after his hangover cleared up and he regained his memories of the night before — that Dib would realize that this was Tak's magic at work, making sure he stayed naked until he returned to the village. Right now, all he could focus on was his panicked desire to get something to cover his "shortcoming" up with, growing more frantic as each chance literally slipped through his fingers. And before long, almost every single loincloth had disappeared, and Dib was reaching towards the highest cord which was holding up the last remaining loincloth, in the mad hope that this one wouldn't disintegrate like the others had.</p><p>"Come on, come on," he muttered as he kept jumping up to grab at the cord. Finally getting ahold of it, he let gravity drag him back to the ground and take the cord with him. Barely noticing as he bumped into some trashcans and knocked them over as he hit the ground, Dib grabbed for the loincloth, only for it to turn to dust just like all the others.</p><p>"Damnit! Why is this happening?!" Dib snapped in a mixture of frustrated anger and panicked desperation.</p><p>"Hey, what's all that noise?" a voice suddenly called from outside the alley, "Otis, is that you? I swear, if you're urinating back there again you old drunk, I'm sticking you in the public stocks for a week!"</p><p>Dib paled at the sound of the voice, and approaching footsteps. He couldn't be seen like this!</p><p>It should be noted that, despite the bad situation his poor judgement had put him in, Dib's enhanced good luck was still in effect. Normally, he wouldn't have gotten out of sight in time before the approaching City Guard patrolman entered the alley, saw him, and chased him down to arrest him for indecent exposure, leading to his public humiliation in the stocks. Now, though, his luck was about to save him, albeit it in a roundabout way…</p><p>Running down the alley in the opposite direction from the voice, Dib was too blinded by panic to realize he still had a firm grip on the clothesline. Already stretched heavily by Dib dragging it to the ground, it didn't take long for it to reach its limit. And since Dib was still holding it when it stopped moving, it pulled him to a sudden stop, jerking him off his feet. As he fell towards the ground, now no longer weighing down the cord, physics kicked in-</p><p>
  <em>SPROING</em>
</p><p>-And the cord snapped back, carrying Dib with it. Then, as it hit the apex of its snapback, he lost his grip, and was thus sent flying through the air, disappearing from view just as the guard entered the alley. Looking around the empty alley, the guard decided that the ruckus he'd heard was probably just a stray cat knocking over those cans and running off; this not being in his job description to worry about, he shrugged it off and walked away.</p><p>As for Dib, he'd been launched so violently by the cord that it was like being shot out of a catapult, sending him far above the rooftops and zooming across the settlement, towards the large tower in the middle of it all.</p><div class="center">
  <p>XXXXXXX</p>
</div>Now, to understand the situation Dib was about to land in the middle of, one needs to know a little about where he was. How just another small, nameless jungle village had been transformed into what people from a more technologically-advanced world would recognize as a fairly large city, now known as the grand metropolis of New Age-opolis (the committee that had been in charge of naming the place was currently awaiting execution for doing such a poor job). And just how had it managed to leap centuries ahead of the rest of the world's technological level?<p>The dark truth at the heart of these questions was that an unholy alliance had been struck between a local human and the forces of demon kind. One that had seen a deity struck down, and their power repurposed to uplift this little corner of the world into a higher state of civilization. And the core of this uplifting effort was in a chamber sitting at the very top of the tower Dib was currently heading towards, the place that pumped the lifeblood of this city.</p><p>Literally, as a matter of fact. There was a giant heart suspended in the middle of a large network of pipes and copper wires, constantly beating away and pumping out divine blood that was then directed out into the plumbing system running throughout the city. It was this mystic fluid that powered the machines that kept the lights on, kept the buildings warm in winter and cool in summer, that provided the fuel used to operate the animal-less carts, and which created the artificial meats that made those who ate them stronger and smarter… at the cost of also making them more docile and obedient. Which was just fine in the eyes of those responsible for this situation.</p><p>One of those people was currently standing on a balcony overlooking the central chamber, blue eyes alight with glee as they took it all in. This was the Demon Queen Miyuki, supreme ruler of all demons, and the mastermind behind this scheme.</p><p>"Ah, this is truly a thing of beauty," she said with a smile.</p><p>"Yes it is," said the human man sitting on a chair nearby. He was bald, with a pointy nose, wearing a purple robe, a maroon cape, and a bronze-colored sash around his waist; also, he was for some reason rubbing bronze coins against his face with a look of total ecstasy. This was Lord Nooth, the demons' collaborator who had helped them come to power and build all this.</p><p>Miyuki rolled her eyes at Nooth's actions. Recruiting his aid in trapping and killing the light god Mulungu, and then cannibalizing the deity's body to make this vast machinery possible, had been necessary to take over this area and build the city, as he was the only one her infiltrators believed would be willing to help them do it in exchange for being the human face of their regime. But he was <em>extremely</em> irritating, not just from his dull-wittedness, but with the blatantly self-absorbed, greedy nature he didn't even try to hide around others. And it was really getting on her nerves, especially his odd obsession with bronze — seriously, they had tons of silver and gold lying around, why was he so fixated on the least valuable precious metal?</p><p>"<em>Still, without him acting as the mortal conduit for the ritual, we never would have pulled this off and pushed the balance of things in demon kind's favor. So I should just learn to live with it,</em>" Miyuki mused in her thoughts, before shaking it off. Turning to the third person in the room, she said, "Skoodge, take a letter."</p><p>"Yes, my Queen," the short, chubby demon said, holding up a sheet of paper and a pen, ready to take her dictation.</p><p>"Red and Purple, things are going ahead of schedule. In accordance with my contract with Nooth," she said, pausing to look at the glowing document lying atop a nearby table, "Soon we will have this city under our total control and turn it into a breeding farm and worship center. Nooth will feed us with the flesh of the surrounding human lands he'll soon conquer for us, as well as that of prisoners and dissidents here in the city, while also making demonology the official religion, outlawing all others. We will feed off their vices, worship, and sacrifice. A new age of demon supremacy is rapidly approaching, and-"</p><p>
  <em>CRASH</em>
</p><p>It was at this point that Dib crashed through the skylight roof of the tower and into the chamber. Falling with a scream, he slammed into a pipe hard enough to break it free of its mooring, sending it spinning around and spewing divine ichor everywhere. This included onto Miyuki and the table containing her contract with Nooth; she screamed as contact with the holy substance caused her and the contract to burst into blue flames before crumbling into dust. Meanwhile Dib, who had been desperately clinging to the pipe for dear life, lost his grip from its spinning and fell again, conveniently landing in the aqueduct the pipe had been feeding into, the current of the fluids filling it quickly grabbing ahold of him and carrying him out of the room, heading towards another part of the city.</p><p>Skoodge and Nooth were left standing there, totally stunned, looking at the wrecked pipe and Miyuki's scorched remains.</p><p>"…Well, that just happened," Nooth said in bewilderment after a few moments. Then he glanced at where his contract used to be, and a smirk formed on his face as an idea occurred to him. While not nearly as bright as he liked to think he was, he could be quite cunning when an opportunity to get his way presented itself, and there was one right here.</p><p>Skoodge, who was still staring slack-jawed at what was left of his Queen, yelped as he was suddenly grabbed by the collar and lifted up to be face-to-face with a maniacally grinning Nooth.</p><p>"Well, chubby, it looks like the deal's off," he said, pointing to the destroyed contract, "Go tell whoever's in charge of your people now that Miyuki's dead that if they want this contract renewed, they need to send me bronze! Tons of it! I want to be able to fill a room with it and swim in it like a duck!"</p><p>"Why would a duck swim in bronze?" Skoodge asked, utterly confused by the analogy.</p><p>"Never mind that! Now go!" Nooth shouted, tossing Skoodge aside. The fat demon hit the floor, then quickly scrambled to his feet before vanishing in a swirl of red smoke. Watching him disappear, Nooth laughed at the thought of the riches that would soon be his.</p><p>And all the while, he was oblivious to the pipe Dib had knocked loose continuing to swing around, banging into and damaging more and more of the machinery…</p><div class="center">
  <p>XXXXXXX</p>
</div>While Nooth was stabbing his demonic partners in the back, Dib was shooting at high speed across the city through a series of pipes and aqueducts. Despite the circumstances of how he'd ended up here, he couldn't help but find the unique experience to be an immense amount of fun.<p>"<em>This is awesome!</em>" Dib thought, "<em>If I could replicate this and have people do something similar for fun… I could be even richer!</em>"</p><p>However, that thought was interrupted as he passed over a section of the aqueduct that wasn't as structurally sound as the rest. While only a minute difference, it was just enough that the added weight of a nearly full grown human like Dib on top of all the water already running along it proved too much for it to hold. Which meant that went that weight hit it-</p><p>
  <em>CRACK</em>
</p><p>-it gave way, collapsing under Dib. He didn't even have a chance to register what was happening before he was falling through the new hole in the bottom of the aqueduct, once more falling through open air. He screamed as he fell, only for it to turn into a surprised yelp as he hit a canopy set up over the front of one building, which acted like a trampoline and sent him flying back up again. He tumbled through the air, before landing on the roof of a building. And thanks to his luck, he landed smack in the middle of some bushes in a rooftop garden; still an uncomfortable landing, but a lot better than hitting stone or metal.</p><p>Groaning, Dib untangled himself from the bush enough to get back on his feet, and started looking himself over. Aside from a few bruises here and there, there didn't appear to be any real damage from any of the impacts he'd taken.</p><p>"Huh, guess my luck's turning around again," he mused.</p><p>"Hey!" a voice suddenly snapped from nearby, "What did you do to my garden-?! …Oh boy, that's not good. Are you okay?"</p><p>Turning to face the speaker, Dib blushed as he saw a very beautiful girl about his age standing a few feet away. Her hair was done up in two ponytails, one on either side of her head, the left one with a green streak dyed into it while the right had a red one. She also had a very well developed figure, which was shown off tantalizingly well by a somewhat oddly-shaped bikini that appeared to be made of some kind of leather instead of leopard fur…</p><p>"<em>Wait a minute,</em>" Dib thought, the analytical part of his mind managing to break through the sudden rush of hormones and make him take a closer look at that bikini. And to his shock, he realized that the reason it looked so odd was that it was made of <em>snakes</em>, a dozen of them intertwined around each other to cover everything she wanted covered. And even more shocking, they appeared to be live snakes, since he could clearly see several of them blinking their eyes.</p><p>"Hey!" the girl snapped again, "My eyes are up here! And we don't have time for you to be ogling me!"</p><p>"S-sorry!" Dib stammered, blushing again as he realized what he was doing, and as he suddenly became much more self-conscious of his nudity. He still had problems with that even when around his harem (except when drunk, of course), so finding himself like this in front a stranger, let alone one who was an attractive girl… well, he was very glad that his lower body was still covered by the bush he'd landed in, so she couldn't see anything.</p><p>"I, uh, I didn't mean to stare," he said quickly, trying to compose himself, "But, uh, I've never seen someone wear live snakes before, is all."</p><p>"Yeah, well I'm a snake charmer," the girl explained, "I harvest their toxins as part of my tonic business, so I like to have them close at all times."</p><p>"Oh, that's interesting," Dib said, trying to keep the conversation going so he wouldn't have to get out of the bush, "I'm Dib, by the way."</p><p>"Viera. Nice to meet you," she replied, "Now, seriously, get out of that bush, right now."</p><p>"Hey, you know, this is a pretty great garden you've got here," Dib said instead of moving, acting as if he hadn't heard her. Viera rolled her eyes, her preexisting annoyance at Dib for damaging part of her garden only growing as he ignored her attempts to move him. Admittedly, judging by how he was crouching and (seemingly subconsciously) pressing down on the section of foliage in front of his crotch for further cover, she had a pretty good reason why he was so hesitant to move.</p><p>Biting back a snicker at the boy's predicament, Viera forced herself to focus on the serious matter at hand. She grew a lot of different flowers and herbs in this garden, to provide her with more materials to make tonics and potions with alongside what she harvested from her snakes, and a lot of them were dangerous if one was exposed directly to large amounts of them. Case in point, the bush Dib had landed in. She had to get him out of it and to her lab downstairs before the effects kicked in and did him harm.</p><p>Of course, while morally obligated to help him out, she was still upset that he had crushed part of her garden (sure, it looked like it had been an accident, but it would still put a dent in her budget), and she wanted a little payback for it. Combined with the fact that he was doing his best to ignore her attempts to get him out of the bush, and her patience was quickly running out.</p><p>As Dib once again deflected her urging to move with more small talk, Viera finally decided to take a different approach. With a slight tap to the head of one of her snakes, making sure it was one not covering anything too private, she gave it a few discrete hand gestures it had been trained to understand. In response, the snake untangled itself from the others, detached from Viera, and once on the ground started sliding towards Dib, who hadn't noticed its movements.</p><p>"-And this is really a great view, isn't it?" Dib asked, gesturing to the city around them with the hand not working to further conceal himself. In response, Viera sighed, then gave him a slight smirk.</p><p>"Well, you can't say I didn't try to do this the easy way," she said.</p><p>"What?" Dib asked, blinking in confusion… then he yelped as Viera's snake bit him on the ass. In a panic from the surprise and mild pain, he instinctively jumped up and out of the bush, hands clasping the bite mark. It was only when he heard Viera giggling did he realize he was now fully exposed; flushing a bright red, he quickly moved his hands to his crotch, though it was too late at this point.</p><p>"Heh, using both hands is kinda overkill, isn't it?" Viera asked playfully, causing Dib's blush to grow and leaving him stammering incoherently. Giggling some more at his reaction for a moment, she composed herself and said, "Sorry, sorry, I know it's not really funny. Come on, let's get you inside and we can get you cured."</p><p>"Cured?" Dib echoed, confusion at that statement momentarily overriding the humiliation.</p><p>"Yeah, I mean, of all the parts of my garden you could have landed in, you had the bad luck to hit the Dysmorphium bush," she said. Seeing Dib's confused look, she clarified, "Most people call it the rather unoriginal name of 'Shrinky Dink' because of what it does to people's genitals."</p><p>"Oh! Uh, yeah, guess that's my luck," Dib said, chuckling weakly and glad that Viera had no way of knowing that he had already been shrunken before landing in the bush. Nor could she be aware that even if he hadn't been, the bush wouldn't have affected him anyway — as part of calming his concerns after revealing her true nature, Tak had given him magical protection from most poisons, toxins, and anything else in the natural world that would have an adverse biological effect on him.</p><p>All of which was, as Dib had ironically noted, his luck at play. Not only was he protected from the Dysmorphium's effects, but by landing in it he now had Viera thinking his predicament was partially her fault for even having the bush in the first place; without that guilt, then between her anger at him crushing part of her garden and her knee-jerk assumption that he was a streaking pervert, she would have tossed him off the roof to receive serious injury by hitting the ground below.</p><p>"Me personally, I don't like that name — not just because it's stupid, but because it doesn't even come close to addressing all the other symptoms, which are a lot more serious," Viera continued, before shrugging, "But don't worry, those take longer to kick in. We just need to get downstairs to my lab, and in about 20 or 30 minutes I should be able to whip up an antidote for you."</p><p>"Thank you," Dib said honestly, and hopeful that whatever cure she cooked up would actually undo his shrinkage despite having a different cause than she thought, "Er, by the way, do you have anything I can borrow to cover up with?"</p><p>"Little late for that, isn't it?" Viera asked with a teasing smirk. As Dib blushed and spluttered some more, she rolled her eyes, "Okay, joking over. But all I can offer is one of my snakes, so if you're not comfortable with that, too bad."</p><p>Dib followed Viera's pointing finger and saw the snake that had bitten him, having emerged from the bush at some point and now staring blankly at him. Dib returned the stare for several moments, trying to comprehend the thought of wearing a live animal, before finally sighing and accepting the inevitable.</p><p>"Fine, let's just get this over with," he said. Viera nodded and made some more hand gestures to the snake, which slithered over to Dib, who shuddered as he felt it start curling around his leg in order to climb up to his waist. Once it got there, it started wrapping itself around him to act as a makeshift loin cloth… and then there was a flash of blue light as Dib's drunken contract with Tak kicked in, determined to deny him cover of any kind.</p><p>The snake hissed in pain and practically leapt off of Dib's body, bolting back into the foliage as it slithered away from him as fast as it could. And that wasn't all, for when the mystic energy from the contract discharged, the rest of the snakes all sensed it as well. Startled by the sudden burst of magic, they all panicked and likewise bolted for cover, not caring that they were taking their mistress' own cover with them as they left.</p><p>By the time Viera realized what was happening, every single snake had left her body and disappeared into the surrounding plants. Caught totally off guard by this unexpected turn of events, she could only stand there, frozen in shock as her face turned red as a tomato. It was only when she happened to glance at Dib and saw him staring slack-jawed at her, with it being clear even in his shrunken state that he was enjoying the sight, that she snapped out of it. Squealing in mortification, she wrapped her arms around herself and hunched over, in a desperate and far-too-late attempt at concealment.</p><p>"Stop looking at me and find those snakes!" she snarled in indignation, too humiliated and flustered to even try and think about how her snakes had been scared off.</p><p>"S-sorry!" Dib replied, voice cracking in embarrassment as he quickly averted his gaze.</p><p>For the next few minutes, the pair searched desperately through the various bushes and plant patches for the snakes, while also trying very hard not to look at each other. Unfortunately, they didn't find a single one, though they did find a number of drainage pipes, which explained where the snakes had gone.</p><p>"Great, that's just wonderful," Viera muttered darkly.</p><p>"Um, you do have more snakes in your home downstairs, right?" Dib asked awkwardly, "Can't we just run down there and get more?"</p><p>"Yes I do, but no we can't," Viera said, "One of those snakes had my keys."</p><p>"…What?"</p><p>"I paid a shaman to enchant my snakes," Viera explained with a sigh, "Now if they swallow anything that's not edible to them, it just sits in their stomachs rather than getting digested. It makes them convenient for carrying around stuff without using bags. And that includes the keys for both my rooms, and the door to this roof."</p><p>"Wait… you mean we're stuck up here?!" Dib exclaimed.</p><p>"Until the janitor comes tomorrow morning for the daily trash check," Viera said with a groan, "And won't that be a fun conversation."</p><p>"I don't suppose we could use some of these plants to make clothes with?" Dib suggested, gesturing to their surroundings with a nod of his head.</p><p>"Are you kidding me?" Viera snapped, "Do you have any idea how much this garden costs? I can't afford to just tear up some of the plants for anything other than using them for ingredients!"</p><p>"So we're both stuck naked up here until someone lets us into the building. At which point they'll see that we're naked. Terrific," Dib grumbled.</p><p>"Yeah, well, you might as well just accept it and get comfortable, we're not going anywhere," Viera muttered, sitting down so that a bush blocked everything but her head from Dib's view. Seeing this, Dib quickly did likewise, sitting down on the other side of the bush so that she couldn't see below his neck either.</p><p>As the two of them sat there in an awkward silence, Dib mentally pondered how his luck could have gotten bad enough to land him in this situation, completely unaware that his luck was still good in a roundabout way. After all, had they managed to get down to Viera's lab, she would have, in the course of studying and trying to cure Dib, discovered the protection he had from Tak; determining it to be demonic in nature, and having just met Dib, she would have gone with her initial reaction and immediately killed him, assuming him to be one of the demon spies who had infiltrated the city ever since Nooth had come to power.</p><p>As it was, the two were now stuck together on that roof for the foreseeable future. Realizing this and fidgeting uncomfortably, Dib decided to try and make the most of the situation; embarrassing though the situation was, it did give him a chance to talk with an interesting and pretty girl.</p><p>"So," he said, "How long have you been making potions for a living?"</p><p>"Seriously? Again with the small talk?" Viera asked flatly.</p><p>"We got anything else to do while waiting up here for someone to let us down?" Dib asked, "Either we just sit here awkwardly the whole time, or we get to know each other. We might as well do that instead."</p><p>Under normal circumstances, Viera would have been able to think of something better to do, namely trying to figure out just what had scared her snakes enough for them all to run off like that. Fortunately for Dib, however, the humiliation of their current predicament was a more than sufficient enough distraction for her to forget about that for now.</p><p>So, resigning herself to the situation, she sighed and took up the conversational thread. This was going to be a long 24 hours…</p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <em>Meanwhile, with Gaz</em>
  </p>
</div>While Dib had spent the whole night passed out in a drunken stupor on the streets of New Age-opolis, Gaz had spent that time hauling her newfound wealth through the jungle, searching for any sign of civilization where she could start spending it on a lavish new lifestyle. Anansi, meanwhile, did his level best to keep her confined to the depths of the jungle, manipulating her bad luck to block her path with fallen trees or landslides, to try and direct her into walking in circles or running into dead ends like quicksand pits or rivers moving too rapidly to cross. Unfortunately for him, Yurugu's own trickster powers present in Gaz's form nullified his influence somewhat, limiting what he could do.<p>And so it was that, around the same time Dib was meeting Viera, Gaz finally stumbled out of the jungle and into a fairly large village, practically a small town.</p><p>"Finally," she muttered angrily, stomach rumbling as she readjusted her bag of loot over her shoulders, "Okay, first thing's first. Find someplace in this dump where I can get something to eat. Then I can figure out my next step."</p><p>Stomping down the village's main road, Gaz noticed that everyone she passed was stopping whatever they were doing to turn and stare at her. Figuring they were just admiring how awesome she looked in her pilfered gold bikini (and just happy that for once people were staring without pointing and laughing), Gaz shrugged and ignored it… and all the while was oblivious to the wisps of black smoke breaking off from her bikini with each step. These wisps shot through the air and hit each person she passed, whose eyes started to glow faintly green as Yurugu's power possessed them, leaving them to stare blankly after Gaz as she walked on towards the marketplace.</p><p>"Hey, you!" Gaz called out to a man standing next to a collection of racks holding various pieces of meat dangling over a fire-pit. He blinked as he heard her and turned to face her, raising an eyebrow at the sight of a young woman, carrying a large sack and wearing a metal bikini that looked like it cost more than everything in the village put together, approaching him with a cross look on her face.</p><p>"May I help you, Miss?" he asked.</p><p>"Give me the biggest piece of meat you've got," she demanded. The meat vendor opened his mouth to start haggling a price, but before he could say anything, one of the smoke wisps shot out and hit him, freezing him in place as his eyes took on the green glow.</p><p>"Well?" Gaz snapped, after a few moments of the vendor staring blankly, having not noticed the smoke hit him nor the glow now present in his eyes. Her voice snapped him out of his stupor, and he shook his head before looking at her with a strange expression she couldn't quite place.</p><p>"Yes, of course, right away!" he said. Turning to the racks, he quickly grabbed ahold of the largest piece of meat on display, a haunch of some kind that was nearly the size of Gaz's head, and held it out to her. Stomach grumbling at the sight, she dropped her bag of loot and snatched the meat out of his hands, hunger making her abandon any decorum and devour it so quickly that it was a miracle her bad luck didn't make her choke on it.</p><p>After only a minute, she had finished her meal, then blushed as she realized both that she'd just eaten so childishly messily in front of someone, and that the vendor was still staring at her. Clearing her throat to force away the mild embarrassment, she picked her sack back up and opened it to start sorting through the coins in it.</p><p>"Right. So, how much for that?" she asked.</p><p>"Oh, there's no charge, Glorious One," the vendor replied earnestly.</p><p>"What?" Gaz asked, blinking at both the response and how cheerfully it was delivered.</p><p>"Clearly one as magnificent as you must be a goddess come forth from the jungle to bless us all with your presence, and therefore it would be a sin to invoke payment from you," the vendor said, before dropping to his knees and raising his hands above his head, "Praise be to your eminence!"</p><p>"Praise be to her!" a chorus of voices called out from behind Gaz. She jumped in surprise and spun around to face the source of the sound, and found to her confusion that the dozens of people she'd passed on the way through the village were now assembled before her, all of them likewise on their knees and hands raised in the air as they all gazed reverently at her.</p><p>"…Is this some kind of joke?" Gaz demanded, unable to wrap her head what was happening.</p><p>"It's no joke, Glorious One. We all exist to humbly serve your divine majesty," the vendor declared solemnly, "Merely say it, and your wish will be our demand!"</p><p>"Oh yeah? Then hit yourself in the face with that rock," Gaz said, pointing to a large rock near the vendor's feet… and then to her shock, the man didn't even hesitate to pick the rock up and smash it into his face hard enough that it shattered, all with a smile that stayed in place even as he collapsed with blood running from his broken nose and with teeth falling out of his mouth.</p><p>"Shall we all pelt ourselves with rocks too, Glorious One?" someone called out from the crowd, while Gaz stared slack-jawed at what had just happened.</p><p>"Wha…? What is… why would…?" she stuttered, trying to comprehend what she was witnessing.</p><p>"<em>Obviously, they're just seeing your natural superiority,</em>" Yurugu's voice whispered in her ear, "<em>Dib's not here to turn everyone against you, so things are simply resorting to their natural order.</em>"</p><p>"Yeah, yeah that's right," Gaz muttered, not noticing that the voice in her head wasn't her own, "I'm awesome, everyone's supposed to do what I say. I just forgot that because of how long it's been since that happened."</p><p>"What are your commands, Glorious One?" someone else in the crowd asked. Looking at the crowd gazing adoringly at her, Gaz rubbed her chin in thought, before speaking.</p><p>"Go bring me everything valuable in this worthless little town," she ordered, "And tell all the other villagers that they work for me now too, or else!"</p><p>"All hail Her Divine Majesty!" the crowd chorused, before getting to their feet and running off to obey Gaz's orders, leaving her smirking as she watched them go.</p><p>"Yeah, I could get used to this," she said, eyes starting to glow with Yurugu's green light and a noticeable reverb entering her voice.</p><p>On the divine plane, Anansi gulped as he watched Yurugu's influence spreading. This was only going to get worse before it got better…</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And there's Part 2 done.</p><p>Anyone who's up to date on New Adventures will be aware that I've started shipping Dib/Viera there. In that particular case, it'll be a long-term process, which will probably take a while to properly flesh out (and which I'll probably write poorly, given my prior attempts at shipping, honestly). But here, as per TCC's outline, I'm able to approach the pairing in a whole different light, which is fun.</p><p>Anyway, not much else to say beyond that, and to once again remind everyone to take care of themselves out there in these troubling times.</p><p>Until next time, please comment!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Part 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dib and Viera come to an (awkward) understanding... just in time for everything to go to hell.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And welcome back everyone, to the next chapter of this jungle AU. Sorry it's been so long since the last update, but as usual, between other stories taking priority, writer's block, and finding numerous new ways to distract myself, I didn't have the time or energy to work on this. But I'm back to it now, so let's dive in.</p><p>Oh, but here's an upside to how long this took. It worked out to me posting this update on the 20th anniversary of Invader Zim first airing. So, happy IZ Day everyone!</p><p>Read on!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As Dib sat stuck on that roof with Viera, the two of them trying to ignore the awkwardness of the situation and get to know each other, he was unaware that his good luck was still at work at a much grander scale then he could have realized. And definitely not in the way he'd initially acknowledge as "good", at least not in the short term.</p><p>Had Dib not come to New Age-opolis and inadvertently killed Miyuki, then the alliance between Nooth and the demons would have gradually allowed them to conquer and assimilate all the countries of the Earth. It would have taken years, but eventually they would have reached and easily enslaved his village. And Tak would probably have been executed for siding with him against her own kind. But now, that alliance was as dead as the Demon Queen was.</p><p>Of course, even without Miyuki or her contract with Nooth, there was still a chance that the demons and the corrupt lord could have salvaged their deal, had cooler heads, like Miyuki's original heir Demon Lord Spork, managed to prevail. Unfortunately, that was not the case — Spork had died several years ago in an accident involving Zim, several stampeding rhinos, quicksand, and a lot of mangos. Because of this, the position of Miyuki's heir had gone to the twin brother Demon Lords Red and Purple, who were a <em>lot</em> less calm and controlled than Spork was when things went wrong.</p><p>"He said WHAT?!" Red exclaimed as Skoodge cowered on the floor of the infernal throne room, having just delivered news of Miyuki's death and Nooth's demands.</p><p>"L-lord Nooth said that-" Skoodge started to repeat himself, only for Purple to kick him hard and send him skittering across the floor.</p><p>"We heard you the first time!" the violet-armored demon snapped, "And who does that human jerk think he is trying to con us like this after we were being so generous?! We weren't even going to stick him in a cage!"</p><p>"He's an annoying pain the ass, is what he is," Red commented as he turned to stare out a window at the infernal realm he just became co-ruler of, scowling in thought, "Not to mention a potential threat if he stops playing with his bronze and actually figures out how to use the full potential of Mulungu's flesh and blood. With Miyuki's contract no longer binding him, there's nothing to stop him turning those machines on us!"</p><p>"So, what do we do?" Purple asked, taking a bite out of one of the huge sides of meat he kept lying around. Red didn't answer for a few minutes, silently contemplating the situation, before a firm look appeared on his face.</p><p>"Well, there's really only one way to deal with this," he declared, turning and pointing at Skoodge, who was getting back to his feet and rubbing his head, "You, go make yourself useful and spread word to all our Generals to begin assembling our legions."</p><p>"Yes,Your Majesty," Skoodge replied with a bow, quickly turning and leaving the room.</p><p>"War?" Purple asked, looking to his brother with a smirk.</p><p>"War," Red replied with a matching look, "Honestly, Miyuki should have just done this in the first place. With our forces augmented by all that Mulungu-powered technology, we'll be unstoppable. No force, human or divine, will be able to stop us from taking this whole world for our own."</p><p>"Whoo! When we get our hands on that stuff, I'm gonna build a machine that pumps out food around the clock!" Purple proclaimed happily, taking another bite out of the haunch he was still holding. Red rolled his eyes but didn't reply to that comment, instead turning and walking out of the room and heading towards his private chambers to prepare for the conflict ahead.</p><p>They were going to march on Nooth, and everything and everyone that got in their way would burn…</p><div class="center">
  <p>XXXXXXX</p>
</div>While the demons prepared for their war on New Age-opolis, the city itself and most of the people within it passed through the day without a care in the world. The day went by, night fell, and then day came again. And during all that time, Dib and Viera were stuck up on that roof, with nothing to do but get to know each other.<p>Dib had told Viera all about his life in his village, including his family and his old battles with Zim. Though he decided to leave out mention of his harem for now, since he didn't think it was a good idea to bring it up right after having met her; a lot of people who heard about it for the first time out of context tended to assume he was forcing the girls in it to be part of it against their will until he could clarify things. Given their current circumstances, he didn't want Viera to get the wrong idea and toss him off the roof in outrage or something.</p><p>He also didn't mention Tak being a demon, but that just seemed like common sense.</p><p>Anyway, after giving his abridged life story, Dib managed to guide the conversation to learning more about Viera. She explained that her father was a snake charmer and her mother a botanist, so when she'd started exploring her magical talents she'd taken what she'd learned from both in order to merge and expand her skill sets. While she might occasionally still get specific aid from more experienced alchemists or witchdoctors, she'd learned how to breed snakes and plants to develop a wide variety of toxins and nectars that were useful in all sorts of potions, both magical and otherwise. All of which meant that she had been prepared for a bright future as a potions maker.</p><p>But then things had changed — as Viera explained it, where New Age-opolis now stood used to be a rather large town, it and the surrounding miles of jungle ruled by a benevolent Queen, who had led her people through peaceful and prosperous times. Unfortunately, these good times had come to a sudden and unexpected end when the Queen, her family, and most of her high council had suddenly died in a fire that ravaged the town. Afterwards, the only council member to survive was Lord Nooth, a minor advisor whom everyone had previously treated as more of an unofficial jester. But with the rest of the leadership dead, there was no one to stop him from taking over. And then everyone stopped caring, because out of nowhere he started producing those miraculous machines of his, swiftly creating this vast city and its advanced way of life out of the ashes of what everyone had known before.</p><p>Viera was one the only one, as far as she could tell, who found anything suspicious about Nooth's sudden rise to power, with everyone telling her to just accept it as a twist of fate and move on. But Viera had refused to do so, and had discretely begun investigating the situation. It hadn't been long before she'd uncovered the number of demons now starting to live in the newly founded city, and their connection to Nooth. Unfortunately, she couldn't prove any of it — she didn't know if it was bad luck, willing blindness on the part of her fellow inhabitants, some kind of curse laid down by the demons, or some combination of the three, but whenever she tried to expose the demons' presence, people would either ignore her or be distracted by something. If she managed to temporarily disrupt a demon's magic disguise, everyone wrote it off as some kind of street performance; if she attacked them with holy objects and blessed tonics, she'd get tossed in a cell for assault; if she tried putting up graffiti as both warning messages to people and wards meant to scare off the demons, the latter were never effected and the former shrugged it off as art. On and on it went.</p><p>Dib really couldn't help but sympathize with her, given his own past with Zim, especially when Viera mentioned how she'd been dubbed the "crazy snake girl", for both her efforts and for wearing her snakes as clothes (and it hadn't helped her reputation that she didn't hide the fact that the primary reason for doing so was to always have the snakes on standby as weapons against the demons). And he had to admire how she persisted in trying to expose the demons no matter what, simply because it was the right thing to do.</p><p>Anyway, this commonality had served to help them get past the awkwardness of their situation, and start to actually bond. And so they passed the day until night fell, at which point they eventually curled up under the bushes and drifted off to sleep. Which led to now, as the sun rose and Dib slowly awoke to the by now very familiar feeling of a naked female body held close to him…</p><p>"<em>Wait, what?</em>" Dib thought, as his mind cleared from sleep enough to register that something wasn't right about what he was feeling. Forcing his eyes open and blinking his vision clear, he looked down at himself… and blushed brightly as he saw Viera laying splayed across his chest.</p><p>"<em>How the hell did this happen?!</em>" he mentally exclaimed, forcing himself to keep quiet so as not to wake her, "<em>We went to sleep on opposite sides of the bush! Did we instinctively get closer to share body heat overnight? Oh man, I better move — if she wakes up and sees this, she's gonna shove my head up my ass!</em>"</p><p>Dib started to slowly move, in hopes of separating from Viera without waking her, only to freeze as he felt something cold pressing against his shrunken genitals. Being very careful not to move his lower body, Dib tore his gaze away from the sleeping Viera and looked further down… and paled as he saw that somehow, at some point Viera had gotten ahold of a dagger, which was now being held right against his junk.</p><p>Where had she even gotten that from? And what was Dib supposed to do now? While it wasn't being pressed hard against his crotch, the positioning of the blade and his shrunken state meant that it'd probably neuter him if he tried to move away. But if Viera woke up and found them in their current state, she'd probably do that to him anyway!</p><p>For several minutes, Dib desperately tried to figure a way out of this conundrum, before it was taken out of his hands. With a muffled grumble, Viera stirred awake, instinctively stretching as she did do, the movement of which against Dib's body stirred up enough arousal that he nearly castrated himself on her dagger. As she felt herself rub up against him, however, she frowned at the unexpected contact and cracked her eyes open to see what she was curled up with. Then her eyes shot fully wide as she saw the state she and Dib were in, a blush quickly blooming on her face.</p><p>"…Good morning?" Dib offered meekly, likewise blushing.</p><p>"Gah!" Viera screamed, jumping away from Dib, who scooted away to give them more distance between each other, "How'd that happen?! Did you try something last night after I was asleep?!"</p><p>"Of course not!" Dib protested, genuinely offended by the accusation, "We must have moved closer to each other in our sleep to share warmth or something."</p><p>"Yeah, okay, that makes sense," Viera muttered, looking away awkwardly. Dib blushed again and likewise tried to keep his focus either away from her or at least above her neck, though considering they'd both seen everything of each other already, he was wondering if there was even a point to trying to maintain modesty by now. Still, trying to avoid the awkwardness from overwhelming them again, Dib decided to start up a conversation again, and went with what he felt was the most pertinent question.</p><p>"Where'd you get that dagger?" he asked.</p><p>"Huh? Oh, this thing? I kept it hidden under a rock up here, in case of emergency," Viera replied with a shrug, "I felt like having it on me just in case you tried anything funny last night."</p><p>"Hey!" Dib protested with a scowl.</p><p>"What? I just met you, I can't just instinctively take your word that you wouldn't do that kind of thing," Viera pointed out, "Especially not after finding out about your precious harem."</p><p>"Yeah, I guess I can see your po-WHAT?!" Dib started to reply, until her last comment registered, "How do you know about that?!"</p><p>"Oh, you don't remember?" Viera asked rhetorically, "Right, let me fill in the gaps for you…"</p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <em>Flashback</em>
  </p>
</div>As the sun was starting to set over the city, Viera was just wrapping up telling her life story to Dib. To her surprise, she found that despite Dib being a stranger from the more savage lands, she liked talking to him. He was a good listener and conversationalist, but more importantly he believed her about the demons and could sympathize with her problems, having gone through the same with Zim (though Viera felt he had it worse; at least she didn't have rage-filled sibling torturing her on top of everything else).<p>However, around this point, something occurred to her. Given the amount of time that had passed since Dib had landed in the Dysmorphium bush, he should have been developing some of the secondary side effects of exposure to it. Yet he was showing no signs of rashes, or boils, or uncontrollable shaking, or bleeding from the orifices, or anything like that. So, somehow he had managed to avoid contamination despite sitting in the bush for several minutes, which was a mystery in and of itself. But on top of that was still the mystery of his shrunken genitals; sure, it was possible they were like that naturally, but it just wasn't likely. And the only other thing she knew of from her studies that could render a fully-grown man's dick that small was a succubus' curse, which might also explain why the Dysmorphium didn't effect him… so why wouldn't he just admit he was cursed?</p><p>"<em>Could he somehow not know about it? Or is he just trying to keep it secret for some reason?</em>" Viera thought suspiciously, but keeping it from showing on her face. Something about this didn't add up, but if he was intentionally misleading her, then it wasn't like she could just outright ask him about it.</p><p>Her train of thought was interrupted as her stomach suddenly growled. She frowned in annoyance, then her eyes widened as an idea came to her.</p><p>"Hey, I don't know about you, but I haven't eaten all day. You hungry?" she asked, Dib blinking in confusion.</p><p>"I thought you said this garden was too valuable to use stuff here?" he asked in return, arching an eyebrow.</p><p>"Too valuable to tear bushes up for makeshift clothes, sure," Viera replied, "But it won't put too big a dent in my budget for us to eat one or two pieces of fruit right now."</p><p>"Oh, okay then. Thanks," Dib said.</p><p>"Good. Stay here," Viera said in response, before walking away, staying in a crouch to keep the bush blocking Dib's view of her. She made her way over to a row of plant boxes, containing a selection of various fruit-bearing plants. Looking them over carefully for a few moments, she settled on plucking what looked like a large tomato but with purple leaves, and a few yellow-green things that looked like cucumbers.</p><p>"Here you go," she said, tossing the tomato-looking thing over the bush for Dib to catch.</p><p>"Thanks," he replied, catching and eagerly devouring the fruit without noticing its odd coloration. Viera, meanwhile, ate her own food while keeping an eye on Dib and waiting for the effects of his to kick in — whereas what she was eating was just an energy booster, Dib was eating a <em>Vertias</em> fruit, which had the narcotic effect of making someone impulsively tell the truth, while removing any inhibitions that would make them awkward about doing so. That would guarantee he'd tell her whatever she wanted to know about what he was hiding from her.</p><p>It was a little underhanded, sure, but she couldn't take any chances.</p><p>It took a few minutes, but by the time Viera finished her own food, Dib had finished his too and was clearly starting to feel its effects. There was a noticeable flush on his cheeks, he was slightly swaying on his feet, and looking closely, Viera could see that his eyes were dilating. Which meant it was time to start.</p><p>"So, Dib, quick question," she said, catching his attention, "Is your dick normally that small?"</p><p>"Huh?" Dib asked slowly, blinking as his befuddled mind tried to grasp her words, before he shook his head and said, "No, I'm normally huge. Like, practically having a miniature elephant trunk attached to my waist. But if I'm remembering through my hangover blackout accurately, this is because I made a drunk bet with Tak, and she cursed me to stay shrunk until I get back home."</p><p>"And who's Tak?" Viera asked, ignoring the blush that formed in response to Dib's description of himself and forcing herself to focus. He was probably just exaggerating, anyway — being compelled to tell the truth didn't mean he couldn't self-delude himself.</p><p>"Oh, she's the succubus who's my chief wife," Dib replied casually.</p><p>"Aha! I knew… wait, what do you mean, 'chief wife'?!" Viera exclaimed, changing topic mid-sentence as Dib's entire comment registered.</p><p>"I have a harem and she's the head of it," Dib explained as if it was obvious, his drugged out state keeping him from noticing how shocked Viera was.</p><p>"You have a <em>harem?</em> And it's led by a <em>succubus?</em>" Viera asked in mild disgust. While not an extinct concept, it was still very rare outside the more savage lands, and frankly Viera didn't see how anyone could approve of that sort of thing. And the fact that Dib not only had one but was letting it be led by a demon was even more infuriating, and instantly struck a blow against her newly-formed opinion of him.</p><p>Now, under normal circumstances, Viera's reaction to finding out about this would have been to toss Dib off the roof (after punching in all his teeth and castrating him for good measure) as punishment for clearly selling out humanity in such a vile way. However, Dib's supernaturally good luck was saving his ass yet again — the fact that this information was coming out now, after Viera had already gotten a chance to develop a semi-friendly rapport with Dib, was tempering her knee-jerk reaction to it, so she was willing to give him a chance to explain himself first.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm surprised I ended up in that situation too," Dib admitted, oblivious to Viera's outrage, "But it's like, one day, all these girls who used to make fun of me suddenly decided that they really liked me and started throwing themselves at me, and before you know it they'd talked me into setting up an official harem. The whole thing was almost weirder than when Tak told me that she was a succubus, which I gotta admit was pretty shocking, but I got used to it eventually. So did the others once she revealed it to all of them too."</p><p>"Wait, she <em>voluntarily</em> outed herself as a demon to your whole group?" Viera asked, arching an eyebrow. That didn't line up too well with what her studies of demons had led her to believe.</p><p>"Yep. Well, the harem, anyway. She's worried about how the rest of the village will do if they find out," Dib clarified, "Which, personally, I think is a bit of an overreaction. I mean, she's done plenty to help the village since she settled down with me — setting up wards to keep away predators and vermin, secretly immunizing the village against most plagues, mystically giving the harvest a boost, that kind of thing. Gotta figure that everyone would give her a pass for that."</p><p>And now Viera was outright staring in slack-jawed shock. A demon actually going out of their way to <em>help</em> humans? And not in a way meant to personally profit from? That was unheard of! Sure, it'd be one thing if this succubus was only doing it to butter up to Dib for more sex, but it sounded like she was getting plenty of that without having to put any effort into it. And as a demon she'd be able to easily defend herself from animals or plagues, and didn't need to consume human food to survive, so those actions clearly weren't motivated by self-preservation. It was almost as if she were legitimately acting out of kindness!</p><p>The thought of a demon actually being good struck Viera almost like a physical blow. And as she watched Dib start to succumb to the drowsiness that was the secondary effect of eating a Vertias fruit, she felt her own weariness start to settle in; after all, this had been a surprisingly emotionally draining day. So, as Dib all but collapsed into slumber, she lay down on her side of the bush to also try to get some sleep.</p><p>After retrieving her hidden dagger first. Just in case.</p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <em>End Flashback</em>
  </p>
</div>"You drugged me?" Dib demanded with a glare.<p>"Oh relax, it was harmless. It's not like I took advantage of you or anything, I just needed to guarantee I got honest answers," Viera replied, giving a frown of her own and gesturing at Dib with the dagger, "Which obviously I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, since you didn't mention your succubus mistress without it."</p><p>"She's not my mistress, she's my chief wife," Dib pointed out.</p><p>"I meant as in she's your demonic overlord," Viera clarified.</p><p>"Oh. Well, that's an exaggeration. We're partners, and like I apparently already told you, she's not that bad," Dib explained.</p><p>"Forgive me if I don't take that at face value. You could be brainwashed for all I know," Viera said, before giving a deep sigh, "Look, you seem like a nice guy, Dib, but I can't just let you go. This is a difficult and serious situation I'm in here, and while I'd like to believe I've found an ally who actually understands my situation, I can't take the risk of trusting you without being sure that Tak isn't controlling or manipulating you, since she could use you to undermine me for the sake of the demons here in the city."</p><p>"Well, what do you suggest we do then?" Dib asked, eyes narrowed in wary suspicion.</p><p>"The way I see it, we have two options," Viera said, "Either you agree to take a potion after we get down from here that will wipe your memory of ever having met or talked to me… or you let me castrate you."</p><p>Dib yelped and instinctively covered himself, even as his mind analyzed that comment on a deeper level. While most people's reactions to it would have been panic and confusion, he understood where she was coming from — according to all his research, the only way to guarantee a man wasn't being influenced by a succubus' sex magic was to remove his genitals (and therefore his ability to be controlled by arousal). So emasculating him would theoretically be the only way that Viera could let him stick around and be able to trust that he wasn't a double agent.</p><p>Obviously, the choice most men in Dib's position right now would be to go with the first option. After all, while having a chunk of his memory erased might leave him disoriented and make it harder to find his way home, but at least he wouldn't be permanently maimed. That was clearly the decision he should make… but on the other hand, Viera was just like how he used to be. Trying to fight the darkness, but surrounded by idiots and enemies on all sides, with no one to help her when she was down and spending every day wondering if it was all worth it.</p><p>Could he really abandon someone to that life, the truly horrible fate of having no one to ever turn to, just for the sake of continuing being able to have sex?</p><p>Dib sighed. He was going to regret having such a martyr complex.</p><p>"Fine. Just make it quick," he said, pulling his hands away and shutting his eyes as he braced himself. Viera stared in shock, caught completely off guard by his decision. After a moment though, she smiled, raised her dagger and dashed forward…</p><p>…And Dib blinked as all he felt was a slight prick on his thigh. Opening his eyes, he looked down and saw that Viera had only slightly nicked his upper leg, causing only a minuscule dribbling of blood as she pulled the dagger away.</p><p>"Wha?" he muttered, not comprehending what had just happened.</p><p>"I've gotta say, I'm surprised," Viera said, "I didn't think you'd actually agree to that. Hell, right up until the last second I'd thought you'd dodge out of the way; good thing my reflexes are good enough I could redirect where I was gonna hit."</p><p>"Wait, was this a test?" Dib demanded with a frown.</p><p>"Obviously. If you were being controlled by a succubus, she'd have compelled you to never agree to allow yourself to be castrated. The fact that you not only did but were willing to go through with it proves that you're not being influenced," Viera explained, before gesturing with the dagger, "Of course, there's still a chance you might be voluntarily selling out to the demons, but I'm more willing to trust you now. That said, double-cross me and I will start cutting things off. After setting them on fire. Got it?"</p><p>"Got it," Dib squeaked out, paling slightly, which earned a small laugh from Viera.</p><p>"Sorry if that all seems extreme, but as I'm sure you know from your fights with Zim, hard times call for hard measures," she said, "But I think it's safe to say that we can trust each other now. At least long enough for us to get off this roof and send you on your way home so you can get un-shrunk."</p><p>"Yeah, thanks," Dib said, sighing in relief, "Speaking of which, how much longer until that janitor shows up to unlock the door?"</p><p>"Shouldn't be too much longer," Viera replied, glancing at the sun, "When he gets here, hide behind the bushes until he walks past, then we can run inside without anyone seeing. And I keep a spare key for my rooms hidden under the doormat, so we just have to get to my door, and then our problems are solved."</p><p>Dib nodded in agreement. Finally some good news; hopefully he'd soon be on his way home, and everything could go back to normal.</p><p>
  <em>BOOM</em>
</p><p>And that was when the universe decided to throw him another curveball, as it was at that exact moment that explosions started erupting throughout the outer edge of the city. Dib and Viera were nearly knocked off their feet as the building shook hard, despite being quite some distance from the source of the blasts.</p><p>"What the hell was that?!" Dib exclaimed as he and Viera ran towards the edge of the roof to look towards where the explosions were happening. To their shock, they were greeted by the sight of hundreds, if not thousands, of demons marching into the city, armed with a combination of both archaic and advanced weaponry. As they watched, a series of cannons and rockets fired at and leveled the buildings nearest to the advancing demonic soldiers, who then rushed forward and used swords, axes, spears, and bows to start hacking away at the humans running around in fear and confusion.</p><p>"…I'm both glad to be proven undeniably correct, and terrified that I won't live long enough to say I 'told you so' to anyone," Viera said after a moment, when she was no longer too stunned to speak.</p><p>"Come on, we need to find a way to break down that door," Dib said, "We can't stay up here in the open, and I'm pretty sure the janitor's gonna be too preoccupied to come up here."</p><p>"Right, let's-"</p><p>
  <em>BOOM</em>
</p><p>Unfortunately, before Viera could even finish her agreement, several more rockets were launched, and one slammed into the side of the building they were atop of. With a massive explosion, the building was blown in half, the top collapsing towards the ground. Screaming, Dib and Viera fell, quickly losing sight of each other amongst the debris. For her part, Viera quickly turned her attention towards surviving the fall. Seeing a vine falling nearby, probably having been dislodged from part of the garden, she managed to grab a hold of it; using a move she'd practiced with her snakes in case of extreme emergency, she lashed the vine out like a whip, aiming for a tall light pole as she fell passed it. To her immense relief, the vine wrapped around and caught on the pole, Viera's momentum causing her to swing out and go flying down the street, clear of the falling debris and breaking her fall enough that when she hit the ground she bounced down the street several yards and came to a stop with only some pain rather than being splattered.</p><p>One could argue that spending a period of time in close proximity to Dib had caused some of his good luck to rub off on Viera, which is why she survived such a fall. Of course, as she wobbly stood back up and brushed herself off, she wouldn't consider herself very lucky for long, as she suddenly remembered her pre-existing predicament — and realized she was standing in front of a large crowd.</p><p>"Hey, isn't that the crazy snake girl?" someone asked.</p><p>"Why is she naked?!" someone else exclaimed.</p><p>Viera groaned and tried to cover herself with her arms, whole face turning bright red at the number of eyes taking in her bare form. A part of her was suddenly almost relieved for the ongoing demonic attack, as it at least meant that she wouldn't have to worry about spending any time in jail (which wouldn't be a first, given past hijinks, but never enjoyable). On the other hand, assuming they all survived the attack, no one was going to forget seeing her like this.</p><p>Fortunately for her, despite her feelings on the matter, she actually did have some of Dib's luck now, which was why the situation suddenly turned in her favor.</p><p>"She was right all along!" someone shouted.</p><p>"Demons are real!" someone else yelled.</p><p>"Nooth has doomed us all!"</p><p>"We should listen to her!"</p><p>"Yeah, she's clearly the only one who knows what to do!"</p><p>"Okay… but again, the nudity?" the person from before asked.</p><p>"It's obviously some form of urban camouflage, genius!"</p><p>Viera, absolutely stunned at this turn of events, could only watch in amazement as the people who'd constantly shunned and belittled her started declaring their loyalty to her orders… and started flinging their clothes off. While that last part was a little disturbing and disgusting, Viera knew she shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and just go with it.</p><p>As the explosions and sounds of battle grew louder and closer, Viera snapped herself out of her surprise. Silently wishing Dib luck and promising to find him once the city was safe, she went to work organizing her new nude militia to start defending against the demons.</p><p>Dib, meanwhile, had once again landed in an aqueduct, the water carrying him swiftly away from the immediate danger zone. Like before, he allowed himself to briefly get distracted by how enjoyable the experience was as he zipped around the city, but like before it was suddenly interrupted. Specifically, by a cannonball smashing through the aqueduct right in front of him, collapsing it and dropping down towards the street below before he could even register what was happening. Fortunately, this particular part of the aqueduct was running right over a narrow alleyway, leaving Dib to bounce back and forth between the awnings and ledges on the sides of the buildings framing it; while painful, this meant that his fall was slowed enough so that the fall only knocked him out instead of flattening him.</p><p>More importantly, this left him lying right next to a hastily-assembled shelter made out of a dumpster pressed against one side of the alley. Hiding in this shelter was what at first appeared to be a girl Dib's age, with red hair and green eyes, wearing a bright yellow fur bikini. However, this was actually another demon — Miyuki, as part of her long-term planning, had sent many to infiltrate the city beyond her direct connection to Nooth in order to slowly influence the population towards demon worship. Unfortunately, she had a strong belief in compartmentalization, and as such most of these sleeper agents were unaware of each other, and the main demon army was completely unaware of their presence. As such, as Red and Purple's forces marched through the city, chaos tore through these infiltrators' ranks — either the main army was killing them because they were unaware of their presence and didn't give them a chance to identify themselves before striking, or infiltrators unaware of each other's identities were killing each other while trying to eliminate humans and not recognizing each other. With all this happening, some of the infiltrators had decided to simply go into hiding until such time as the fighting died down.</p><p>The demon now observing the unconscious Dib was one of these hiding pragmatists, by the name of Tenn. She was a type of demonic nymph known as a meliae, known for binding themselves to animals as mystical familiars, which in Tenn's case was a hive of bees; like with Viera and her snakes, she disguised them as a "fur" bikini in order to keep them on her at all times. And like succubi, meliae could drain people of energy via sex (though unlike succubi, meliae didn't live solely off it, it was just a boost). Tenn used this ability as part of her infiltration, not just stealing energy but using pillow talk to gather information to channel back to Miyuki, which is what she'd been doing when things had started blowing up. Not having any options, she'd hidden in the first dumpster she could find and quickly fortified it to the best of her abilities, hoping to ride things out.</p><p>And then the unconscious body of a human boy slammed into her "fort". Now Tenn, although startled, would've probably just left Dib outside to be killed by all that was happening. However, Dib's luck would once again save him in a roundabout way… by making Tenn hungry. Not wanting to risk going looking for food in the middle of the battle, she instead quickly scampered out, grabbed Dib, and dragged him into the dumpster. Then, she prepared to start feeding on his flesh and organs, only to freeze as she saw his shrunken dick.</p><p>Looking between the rather distinct appearance of Dib's tiny prick and his face, Tenn suddenly realized that she'd seen him before…</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And we'll cut this chapter off right here. Mostly because the next section of the outline is a super long flashback that would have at least doubled the length of this chapter, so it seemed only logical to stop here.</p><p>Anyway, hoping everyone liked what I did with what Cowardly Christian gave me. And again, happy 20 years of Invader Zim to you all!</p><p>Please comment!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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